TEHRAN: Iran and its regional allies vowed retaliation on Thursday for the deaths of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, raising regional tensions as mourners filled Tehran’s city center calling for revenge. A public funeral was held for Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital where he was killed early Wednesday in an attack which the Zionist entity has not commented on. Haniyeh’s body was then flown to Qatar, where he had resided and where he is to be laid to rest on Friday, when his group called for a “day of furious rage” in the Palestinian territories and across the region.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, addressing the funeral of the Lebanese group’s top military commander, said the Zionist entity and “those who are behind it must await our inevitable response” to Fuad Shukr’s and Haniyeh’s killings within hours of each other. “You do not know what red lines you crossed,” Nasrallah said, addressing the Zionist entity, a day after Shukr was killed in a strike in south Beirut.

Kuwait will never be used as a launchpad for attacks on neighboring countries, spokesman for the defense ministry Col Hamad Al-Saqer said on Thursday. Kuwait authorities will not allow the use of the country’s lands or airspace to carry out military operations against neighbors and allies, he was cited as saying in a military statement, denying the veracity of reports alleging otherwise.

Kuwait Airways on Thursday said the last scheduled flights to Beirut would be Aug 4, and then they would be put on hold due to the regional situation. Kuwait Airways said in a press release that the decision was made in coordination with the foreign ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). On Wednesday, the DGCA affirmed it was continually coordinating with the foreign ministry and Kuwaiti carriers to reschedule flights from and to Beirut via Kuwait International Airport.

The Zionist entity, which said Shukr’s assassination was a response to deadly rocket fire last week on the annexed Golan Heights, warned its adversaries on Thursday they would “pay a very high price” for any “aggression”. “(The Zionist entity) is at a very high level of preparation for any scenario, both defensive and offensive,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “Those who attack us, we will attack in return.” Meanwhile the Zionist military said an air strike in Gaza last month killed Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif. The Palestinian group has not confirmed it.

A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Iranian officials met in Tehran on Wednesday with representatives of the so-called “axis of resistance”, a loose alliance of Tehran-backed groups hostile to the Zionist entity, to discuss their next steps. “Two scenarios were discussed: A simultaneous response from Iran and its allies or a staggered response from each party,” said the source who had been briefed on the meeting, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Analysts told AFP that the retaliation would be measured to avoid a wider conflagration. Iran and the groups it backs “will more than likely try to avert a war, while also strongly deterring the Zionist entity from continuing with this new policy, this targeted shock and awe,” said Amal Saad, a Hezbollah researcher and lecturer at Britain’s Cardiff University. In Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for Haniyeh having earlier threatened “harsh punishment” for his killing.

Crowds, including women shrouded in black, carried posters of Haniyeh and Palestinian flags in a procession and ceremony that began at Tehran University, an AFP correspondent reported. Senior Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami, attended the ceremony, state television images showed.

Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’s foreign relations chief, vowed during the funeral ceremony that Haniyeh’s message will live on and “we will pursue (the Zionist entity) until it is uprooted from the land of Palestine”. Pezeshkian later told Hayya that Iran “will continue to support with firmer determination the Axis of Resistance”, Iran-aligned regional groups that include Hamas, the official IRNA news agency said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced the day before that Haniyeh and a bodyguard were killed in a pre-dawn strike Wednesday on their accommodation in Tehran. The New York Times however reported, citing anonymous sources including two Iranian officials, that the blast was caused by an explosive device planted several months ago.

Qatar-based Haniyeh had been visiting Tehran for Pezeshkian’s swearing-in on Tuesday. Pezeshkian said Iran “will continue to support with firmer determination the axis of resistance”, the official IRNA news agency said. Qatar-based network Al Jazeera reported said the plane carrying Haniyeh’s body had landed in Doha, where the Palestinian leader is to be buried following prayers at the Qatari capital’s largest mosque.

Hamas called in a statement for a day of protests on Friday. “Let roaring anger marches start from every mosque,” it said. The international community has called for calm and a focus on securing a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip — which Haniyeh had accused the Zionist entity of obstructing. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said the strikes in Tehran and Beirut represented a “dangerous escalation”.

In a phone call, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt blamed the Zionist entity for rising tensions and called for “de-escalation”, Jordan’s official Petra news agency reported. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated appeals for an end to fighting. He said achieving peace “starts with a ceasefire” and called on “all parties” to “stop escalatory actions”. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told a news conference that the Zionist entity “has turned rogue” by killing “the one who was negotiating the (hostage-prisoner) exchange deal”.

The Zionist military campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,480 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, mostly women and children. Beyond Gaza, clashes continued on Thursday with Lebanese authorities reporting four Syrians killed in a Zionist strike. – Agencies